Senegal President's Brother Resigns After Energy Fraud Claims
The brother of Senegal's President Macky Sall has resigned from his government post after allegations of fraud relating to natural gas contracts, he said on Monday.An investigation by the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) this month alleged that a company run by Aliou Sall received a secret payment of $250,000 in 2014 from Frank Timis, a businessman whose company, Timis Corporation, that year secured licences to two major offshore gas blocks.The affair has dominated the airwaves in Senegal, overshadowing the beginning of President Sall's second term.
New Pipeline Coming Offshore Equatorial Guinea
Noble Energy and partners will build a pipeline linking Equatorial Guinea's offshore gas fields to an onshore liquefied natural gas (LNG) plant to boost exports, the African nation's government said on Monday.Under a deal with the government the 70 km (44 miles) pipe will have capacity for 950 million cubic feet of gas per day from fields operated by Noble and will be ready in the first quarter of 2021.Once liquefied at the export plant, which is run by Marathon Oil, the gas will be shipped to markets across the globe.Sonagas GE, the state-run gas company, will increase its stake in
Exxon Nears Deal to Explore for O&G Offshore Mauritania
Exxon Mobil is close to signing a deal to explore for oil and gas offshore Mauritania, its first foray into the West African country, Mauritania's oil, energy and mines director said on Wednesday. An Exxon Mobil spokeswoman declined to comment on the deal, but said the Texas-based company does not yet have drilling activities in Mauritania. Interest has surged in oil and gas fields offshore of Mauritania and neighbour Senegal since big discoveries by Cairn Energy and Kosmos Energy, the latter now partnered with BP, in separate projects over the last three years.
African LNG Exports to Get Boost from Offshore Projects
Cameroon plans to begin exporting liquefied natural gas later this year using a newly designed offshore plant that analysts say could slash production costs and unlock African reserves not previously considered economically viable. West and Central Africa's Gulf of Guinea has seen a wave of new oil and gas exploration, particularly since Tullow Oil discovered Ghana's huge Jubilee gas field in 2007. But the cost of pipelines and onshore liquefaction facilities means that relatively few gas finds have been developed.
Total: Congo Crude Exports Unaffected by Port Strike
French oil and gas company Total said on Monday that crude exports from its Djeno terminal in Congo Republic was ongoing and unaffected following a strike last week and the sinking of a loading buoy in an unrelated accident. Traders said on Friday that the company had declared a force majeure on exports of Djeno crude following the incident. A spokeswoman for Total said: "exports from Djeno remain unaffected and safely continue with the second available loading buoy," adding that the tanker that was loading at the time of the buoy incident was safely disconnected.
Oil Production Stages Unlikely Comeback in Congo Republic
As low oil prices hit economies across Africa, one unlikely country is boosting output and attracting major investment that could make it one of the continent's largest producers by next year. Congo Republic, whose oil sector was ravaged by a dip in prices and production since 2014, has been rejuvenated by new projects scheduled to boost output by 25 percent to 350,000 barrels per day (bpd) next year and help an ailing economy hobbled by huge debt, civil unrest and deep-rooted corruption.
Total Expands Oil Search Offshore West Africa
Total has signed a deal to explore for oil and gas offshore Mauritania, the French company said on Friday, expanding the scope of its search for new fields in the deep waters off West Africa's Atlantic coast. Under an agreement with Mauritania's state-run oil company SMHPM, Total will take a 90 percent operating stake in Block C7, which covers 7,300 square kilometres, and SMHPM will take the remaining 10 percent. The deal comes 10 days after Total announced that it had taken a 90 percent stake in the deepwater Rufisque Offshore Profond Block in neighbouring Senegal…
African Petroleum Holds Senegal Oil Block Claimed by Total
African Petroleum, an oil firm founded by Romanian-Australian businessman Frank Timis, said in a statement it still owns a licence to explore an oil block off the coast of Senegal that French oil major Total said it bought this week. The claim could set up a battle over potentially lucrative exploration licences just as the poor West African country is preparing to begin oil production after a series of promising discoveries. "The company reiterates its position that it holds a 90 percent operated position in the ROP (Rufisque Offshore Profoud) production sharing agreement…
Total to Explore Senegal's Deepwater Potential
Total has signed an agreement to explore for oil and gas off Senegal's Atlantic coast, boosting the prospect of major oil developments in the West African country. Under the deal Total will explore in the deepwater Rufisque Offshore Profond Block where it will be the operator with a 90 percent stake and Senegal's state-run oil company Petrosen will hold the remaining 10 percent. The two parties also agreed to cooperate on exploration in "ultra-deep" offshore waters, with the potential for Total to become an operator there too. The financial terms of the deal were not disclosed.
Strike at CNR's Ivory Coast oil and gas fields extended
Workers have extended a strike indefinitely at Canadian Natural Resources' (CNR) Baobab and Espoir oil and gas fields in Ivory Coast, the SISPOO oil workers union said on Saturday. A 72-hour strike was called early on Wednesday over the firing of workers and was extended on Friday after the parties failed to reach an agreement. "As no solution is in sight, we hereby announce the extension of the strike until the conflict is resolved," SISPOO said in a letter to CNR on Friday.
Ghana oil importers say government owes them $384 mln
Ghana's domestic oil importers said on Friday they may take legal action against the government to recover interest on an outstanding debt of $384 million that presents an early headache for the incoming government. The debt was accumulated mainly between 2013 and 2015 when Ghana's cedi currency halved in value against the dollar, hitting importers who buy oil products on international markets in dollars but sell them in cedis to consumers at home. The gap between the…
West Africa Oil Projects Face Yet Longer Delays
Oil firms have put major projects in West Africa on hold because of low prices - as they have across the globe - but when the market finally picks up, development is likely to recover much more slowly in the region than elsewhere. High costs bedevil the region, which includes established producers such as Nigeria and newer entrants like Ghana. Add to this long-standing problems of poor infrastructure, complex bureaucracy and politics, and West Africa may be well down the list for any investment revival.
Shale Drilling Boosted US O&G Reserves in '14 -EIA
Reserves of oil and natural gas in the United States shot higher last year, according to government data released Monday, setting records that reveal the extent to which a decade-long drilling boom has transformed the energy landscape. Proved reserves of natural gas rose by 34.8 trillion cubic feet (tcf), or 10 percent, to a record high of 388.8 tcf in 2014, while oil reserves rose 3.4 billion barrels, or nine percent, to 39.9 billion barrels, the highest since 1972, the Energy Information Administration said in a statement.
US and Russian Gas Exporters Square up over Europe
The first export of U.S. gas to Europe will head for Lithuania, two industry sources say, a gesture to the Baltic states, reliant on Russia for supply, and the likely first shot in a price war over market share in Moscow's backyard. The February delivery will be of U.S. liquefied natural gas (LNG) transported by sea to custom built terminals, challenging Russia's land locked pipelines, as producers turn from the wilting Asian market to Europe. Europe has attained strategic importance for the United States…
Struggling U.S. Producers get Credit Lifeline
An autumn credit crunch was expected to hit many independent U.S. oil producers, starving the industry of billions of dollars and further denting company budgets and drilling plans. But banks that adjust their loans to energy companies every six months based on the oil price and volumes of reserves were more lenient than many expected this time, leaving producers with more cash for drilling and allowing them to supply more oil to a market already flush with excess crude.
LNG Tanker Sails for US Sabine Pass for Inaugural Loading
Cheniere Energy's landmark Sabine Pass liquefied natural gas export plant in Louisiana will receive its first tanker for loading on Jan. 12, according to ship tracking data and a source with knowledge of the plant's operations. The Energy Atlantic LNG tanker, which was last seen on Thomson Reuters ship tracking data on Monday steaming west across the Indian Ocean, is the first in a string of test cargoes that will be loaded before commercial operations begin later in the year.
First US Shale Gas Exports to Sail into Oversupplied Market
When Cheniere Energy opened a new liquefied natural gas import terminal in Louisiana in 2008, a U.S. shale drilling boom quickly made it obsolete. Seven years on, with the Houston-based firm about to open a landmark export plant on the same site, the timing, again, is far from ideal. A Reuters analysis shows that a slump in oil prices and global abundance of LNG threaten to undercut the economics of U.S. gas exports, crimp shippers' profits and possibly reduce demand for facilities such as Cheniere's $12 billion Sabine Pass plant, the first to send U.S. shale gas worldwide.
California's Monterey Oil Deposits Seen at 21 mln bbls
Unconventional oil and gas deposits in deeper portions of California's Monterey formation may not be as prolific as once estimated, the U.S. Geological Survey said on Tuesday. A new study by the agency estimated that 21 million barrels of oil and 27 billion cubic feet of gas can be recovered from the Monterey shale in the San Joaquin Basin using existing technology for hydraulic fracturing. Though the Monterey shale was once seen as holding great promise for unconventional oil extracted by fracking…
Small U.S. Frackers Failing Amidst Drilling Drought
Oil field work was coming in fast when GoFrac doubled its workforce and equipment fleet at the beginning of last year, just one of hundreds of small oil service companies thriving on the revival of U.S. drilling. Founded in November 2011 with a loan of around $35 million, the Fort Worth, Texas-based company was by 2014 making nearly that much in monthly revenues, providing the crews and machinery needed by companies including ExxonMobil to frack oil and gas wells from North Dakota to Texas.
Record Low Interest in US GoM Leases
A U.S. government sale of oil and gas drilling leases in the western Gulf of Mexico attracted the lowest number of bids on record on Wednesday as slumping oil prices kept producers from plowing money into expensive offshore prospects. The yearly sale, held by the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management (BOEM), attracted $22.7 million in high bids, the smallest in the western Gulf since 1983 when leases were first broken down into regions, the BOEM said, reaping just one fifth of the value of last year's offers.
